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Special Ops Guide for Marvel Avengers Alliance

Latest Update
7/25/12: Added Special Ops 002 Long Live the Queen

Special Ops is the latest release of Marvel Avengers Alliance on Facebook. In this guide, we will go over some basic and intermediate information currently available for the Special Ops section of the game. We will discuss what they are, the best way to approach these MAA missions, and the rewards that you can potentially obtain from completing these special ops missions. Using these tips will guide you on how to beat the special ops easier while achieving 5 stars mastery. If you have found this guide helpful, please take a look at our other great Marvel Avengers Alliance guides on Facebook that will definitely help you with your game play. Please link to us to show your support too if you have found the guide helpful.

What is Marvel Avengers Alliance Special Ops

Special Ops are timed missions that will have certain time frame for you to complete. Although these missions are timed, their expiration date is set pretty generously so that you will have plenty of time to complete them. You can access Special Ops in MAA once you have completed Story Missions. Check out your mission tab or the newspaper to unlock it. You will need to use a special item – Unstable ISO-8 to access these special ops deploys or battles. You can earn Unstable Iso-8 through battle or deploys, gifts from friends, or buy it from the store to help you complete the challenge. However, once the mission is expired that flavor of Unstable Iso-8 goes away with it, so try to use it all up before your Special Ops expires.

Getting Unstable ISO-8 and Hero Deploy

The chance of getting Unstable ISO-8 from a hero-specific deploy in Special Operations is at roughly 2%. There is no guarantee that it will pop-up in any of the other deploys. Aborting the Deploy mission consumes the Unstable Iso-8 used to activate it. Thus, you should do your best to complete the missions and avoid aborting hero deploys the MAA Special Ops. However, because the chance is so low and the mission score from hero deploy is low relatively compared to battles. You should avoid deploying in the first place.

The Use of Heroes in Special OPS

It should be noted that Special Ops can be played simultaneously with regular Marvel Avengers Alliance Story missions. However, they share the same “heroes” pool. This means that if you have sent your hero on a deployment with a story mission, you will not be able to use them in Special Ops. Thus, you should plan out your playing strategy if you decide to focus primarily on the MAA special ops.

Special Ops Gameplay Strategies and Tips

These tips will help you beat the Marvel Avengers Alliance special ops with ease, by using these methods and guidelines, you will be able to complete the special ops faster while using less unstable ISO-8’s. These methods generally point you toward optimizing your unstable ISO-8’s faster to obtain the 5 star mastery in Special Ops, because unstable ISO-8 is quite limited and hard to get, that is the direction that you want to head to get the most points while using the least unstable ISO-8 as possible.

Avoid Special Ops Hero Deploy

Unless you want to unlock Epic bosses in special ops, you should avoid deploying your heroes out on missions in general. The deploy missions cost a great deal of unstable ISO-8’s while giving you only 500 mission points per deploy. The gain and rewards from hero deploys is considerably less compared to battles. Lastly, the chance of getting those unstable ISO-8 back as hero deployment reward is at a negligent 2%.

Focus on Higher Level Threats

The higher level threats in Special Ops give you the best MAA mastery score to Unstable ISO-8 ratio. Thus, you will end up getting more points with less unstable ISO-8 spent if you simply play the higher level threats.

Restart Missions to Refresh Threats Listing

Because you can gain more mastery points by defeating higher threats battles in Marvel Avengers Alliance Special Ops, you should abort and restart the missions if you do not see high level threats. This will help you to conserve the spending of your Unstable ISO-8’s. By refreshing the battle list, you can gain mastery points faster in special ops. It should be noted in some missions that you will typically only see lower level threats in the beginning of the mission, thus do not be alarmed if you keep on seeing low level threats if you start refreshing at the beginning of the mission. If that happens, you simply play the highest level that you end up getting.

Choosing Your Special Ops Battles

Similar to the regular story missions, sometimes you will be given choices on which kind of enemies that you want to defeat in Marvel Avengers Alliance Special Ops. Pick the ones that your team is best optimized for by using the MAA hero class strength and weakness system. Although at this time, you should have a pretty good idea on what kind of enemies that your team can easily defeat in special ops.

Take Your Time

Although you may want to rush into the special ops and unlock everything as soon as you can, you should still slow down and build up the unstable ISO-8’s gradually. The time given to you for special ops mission completion is quite generous. Take your time to complete and master it instead of killing yourself over it.

Special Ops Useful Notes

Below we will provide some quick notes on the items and drops that you can obtain from Marvel Avengers Alliance Special Ops.

SPECIAL OPERATIONS 002 – Long Live the Queen

Unlock Emma Frost: Complete 25 Tasks. (Note: 15 Star Mastery will NOT get you Emma Frost)
Availability: From July 24th – August 19th (26 day time limit).

List of Marvel Avengers Alliance Special Operations 2 Tasks, we have broken these special ops into different categories with numbers to let you know when and how to complete these Special ops tasks.

Battle Type Tasks:
10. Uncanny X-Men: Take 2 X-Men into battle. Wolverine, Cyclops, Colossus, Kitty Pryde, Nightcrawler, Phoenix, Storm and Emma Frost. 10 gold to skip
You can use them in non spec-op missions, including PVP. If you don’t have any X-men recruited, use them in the team-up missions.
Reward: Mindbreaker (Research)
18. Brain Freeze: Use Emma Frost’s Psychic Tap ability three times. Emma Frost is a Team-Up in several boss fights. 10 gold to skip
19. Astonishing X-Men: Take 5 X-Men into battle. Wolverine, Cyclops, Colossus, Kitty Pryde, Nightcrawler, Phoenix, Storm and Emma Frost are all members. 10 gold to skip
You can use them in non spec-op missions, including PVP. If you don’t have any X-men recruited, use them in the team-up missions.
20. Headmistress Frost: Use Emma Frost’s Unlock Potential ability three times. 10 gold to skip
Reward: The Rook
21. Danger Room: Complete 3 PVP battles. 50 gold to skip
23. Intrusive Thoughts: Use Emma Frost’s Mental Trauma ability three times. Emma Frost is a Team-Up in several boss fights. 10 gold to skip

Mission 2 Tasks:
9. Breaking the Mold: Defeat 10 Sentinels. They can be found in Mission 2. 10 gold to skip
13. More Human Than Human: Defeat Omega Sentinel. She is the Boss of Mission 2
Requires 10 gold to skip
15. Council of the Chosen: Get 2 stars of mastery in Mission 2. 10 gold to skip
Reward: Skullsplitter (Research)

Research Tasks:
6. How I Learned to Stop Worrying…: Research EMP Grenade in the Lab. The EMP Grenade can be researched after acquiring the AIM EMP Grenade Schematics. – 20 gold to skip. Ps. It only costs 17 gold to skip the timer for research itself.
Research requires 60 UISO-8, 100 silver and 8 hours to complete.
11. Mind Games: Upgrade Mindbreaker to Mindkiller in the Lab. The Mindkiller can be researched after acquiring the Mindbreaker. 20 gold to skip. Research requires 80 UISO-8, 200 silver and 30 hours to complete.
14. EMP-ulsive Actions: Use 5 EMP Grenades in combat. EMP Grenades can be purchased from the store after researching them. 10 gold to skip
16. Skull and Crossbones: Upgrade Skullsplitter to Skullripper in the Lab. The Skullripper can be researched after acquiring the Skullsplitter. 20 gold to skip
Research requires 120 UISO-8, 300 silver and 48 hours to complete

Item Collection Task:
8. Unstable Containment: Get 10 Unstable Isotope-8. 10 gold to skip. You should hold off with ISO-8 gift collection until you get to this Marvel Avengers Alliance special ops task.